Italian Wedding Soup

PieSusan

PieSusan

Tortes Are Us
Italian Wedding Soup
Serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground veal, pork or turkey
1/4 cup bread crumbs (commercial, or grate your own from stale Italian bread)
1 egg
1 Tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
1/2 clove garlic, minced (optional)
1/2 teaspoon paprika (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper or to to taste
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups spinach, chopped
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Directions:
Mix the ground meat, bread crumbs, egg, parsley, minced garlic and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Form into tiny meat balls with your hands. Place the meatballs on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes at 350F, until brown. Or, alternately, you can sauté the meatballs in olive oil until brown or even bring your chicken stock to a low boil, add the uncooked meatballs, and simmer for about 25 minutes. If you simmered the raw meatballs in the soup, add the spinach, cook until tender, stir in the cheese and serve. Otherwise, about ten minutes before serving, bring the chicken broth to a boil, add the spinach and cook until tender. Then, add the meatballs and return soup to a simmer. Stir in the Pecorino cheese and serve.
 
I never go to Italian weddings. Not only do I dislike my cousins, but who has five days to waste?

First there's the dinner at Aunt Clara's. Then the bachelor party. The women go out clubbing as well. Then the rehearsal, and the rehearsal dinner. The final fitting of each man's tux. The resplendent wedding itself. Then the reception--in my family it's sometimes a two-day affair.

After the newlyweds depart for a fun-filled three day, two night with continental breakfast included in beautiful downtown Lake Geneva, the old Moustache Petes gather for schafkopf at Clara's. Of course, one of the drunken cousins is going to cheat. The other drunken cousin is going to pull a stiletto...

Then the wake, a day for the funeral...

Like I say, who has five days?
 
My favorite Italian wedding was one in which I only saw pictures but I had to chew the inside of my cheeks to keep from laughing. I just kept smiling and saying how it must have been a special affair. The girl is a lovely person and quite beautiful but her family is short and stocky but her mom had gotten it into her head that she wanted a Southern Antebellum themed wedding. The poor girl was forced to wear a dress that was tiered like Little Miss Bo Peep complete with matching parasol. Mom spared no expense. I will spare you more description.
 
On topic... Love Italian Wedding Soup

off topic I have never actually seen it served at any of the numerous Italian-American Weddings I have been too... I think it is more of a real Italian dish.

Unlike Chico I love an Italian Wedding...... where else are you going to get that much awesome food all at once... It's totally worth all the cheek pinching and the 20Lbs gained.... it never stops your full at Antipasto but it just keeps coming. Who else spends the downpayment for a nice house on food?

Now much of my Italian family has had the smarts to marry Irish... so you get the food and the booze.... it's a perfect combo.. like the Sopranos meet The Westies... ok sometimes people end up in jail but those weddings are FUN... my family has had some wing dingers. If you ever get invited to an Irish-Italian wedding in the Bronx or Brooklyn (preferably in Throgs Neck or Mill Basin) GO! you will remember it forever.
 
I'm jealous of all the mustaches at an Italian wedding. Sadly, the best ones are on the women. Bada- Bing!!!! :twak::shock::alc::hide: ROFLMAO
 
I believe it was Alton Brown who straightened out the origin and meaning of Italian Wedding Soup on one of his many shows, and for some unusual reason I've remembered the story. Here's teh Wikipedia brief description in words better than I could put together...

Ingredients

Wedding soup consists of green vegetables (usually endive and escarole or cabbage, lettuce, kale, and/or spinach) and meats (usually meatballs and/or sausage) in a clear chicken-based broth. Wedding soup sometimes contains pasta, noodles, cavatelli, lentils, or shredded chicken.

Origin

The term "wedding soup" is a mistranslation of the Italian language, minestra maritata ("married soup"), which is a reference to the fact that green vegetables and meats go well together. Some form of minestra maritata was long popular in Toledo, Spain before pasta became an affordable commodity to most Spaniards, though the modern wedding soup is quite a bit lighter than the old Spanish form, which contained quite a few more meats than just the meatballs of modern Italian-American versions.
 
You don't put any type of pasta in yours?? My favourite type is ancini di pepe or a very smalle ditalini.

One of the first things Lou ever made for me was Italian wedding soup...and I was completely impressed!
 
My grand mother used to make it once every two week using ditalini. My brother and I named it That Again which my kids also call it now. One of the first things my grand mother taught my wife when we first got married. Love the stuff personally.
 
Johnny West said:
Q, is your soup like this?

I'll want some white beans in mine.
The homeless guys like a hearty soup.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is, John.

I found a one-pound mixture of ground beef, pork and veal at my store (labeled "meatloaf mix"), but I'd be fine with just beef and pork, or just ground beef.

I grated a little lemon zest into my meatballs, and I used escarole instead of spinach, but I have no problem using spinach.

Loved the acini de pepe!

Lee
 
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